


Too Much To Ask

by nanasteiger



Category: 9-1-1 (TV)
Genre: M/M, Missing Scene, Mutual Pining, and they are the Biggest Fools of them all, no beta we die like men, spoiler 3x12 "Fools", they just need a little bit of time
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-03-24
Updated: 2020-03-24
Packaged: 2021-02-28 19:07:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,473
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23292214
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/nanasteiger/pseuds/nanasteiger
Summary: “She’s pretty.” He said, still watching carefully.But she’s not you, he wanted to say. “But I would never even consider letting someone enter my life that way if I didn’t know that Chris was their first priority.”“Isn’t that a bit much to ask?”Missing scene from tonight Episode 3x12 "Fools"
Relationships: Evan "Buck" Buckley/Eddie Diaz, Evan “Buck” Buckley & Eddie Diaz (9-1-1 TV)
Comments: 11
Kudos: 425





	Too Much To Ask

**Author's Note:**

> I was a little bit upset about tonight episode and I wanted to make it right. Also, for everyone out there that may think this new probable love interest is something we need to worry about I tell you: just wait. I still have faith for our boys to have their happy ending, they just need more time and we can still enjoy our slow burn.  
> Also, I think we can be happy they pratically confirmed Buck bisexuality when NO ONE objected when Josh thought he was being set up with Buck. I don't know if I have made some mistakes time-line wise, but I've watched it once and I couldn't really remember (like I couldn't remember the exact joke the teachers made or what the name of the English teacher was (she's not even on imdb)).  
> The little mermaid at the beginning is just me being really obsessed with that movie (hi, I am this Buck down here).  
> English is not my first language so I would be grateful, should you find some grammar errors, if you told me about them. Enjoy!

The last scene of The Little Mermaid was playing on the screen, Ariel hugging his father as he was giving her his last goodbye and sending her in Eric’s arms, and if someone was to tell Buck that he looked like he was very close to crying he would have strongly denied. Even if it was a very moving scene,  _ thank you very much _ . 

Eddie elbowed him slightly, trying not to laugh at him, and when the credits started to roll he stood and picked Christopher up in his arms to take him back to his room. He probably carried his son more delicately than usual, tucking him into bed with more care, and looking at him sleep for a little longer, his eyes going over the bruises on his arms that peeked through the covers.

He has been asleep since the  _ kiss the girl _ scene, more or less, clearly tired from the stressful day. They could have turned off the tv at that point but Eddie knew that Buck loved that movie, always singing along to all the songs and mouthing his favorite lines, and decided to ignore the way his son started to lightly snore in his side. And also maybe it felt good to have his baby boy close to him longer that night, ignoring the little fight that they had earlier and dreading the day when the child wouldn’t let him cuddle him so freely.

When Eddie got back he went directly to the fridge and grabbed two beers. 

“So, did you compose yourself? No more tears?”

Buck rolled his eyes and accepted the cool bottle, sprawling wider on the couch and giving a big gulp. They had similar conversations every time Chris would choose The Little Mermaid for their movie nights and Buck had decided to not give him any more satisfaction in arguing about it. 

“How did the parents/teachers conference go the other day?” 

Eddie stilled, not really wanting to explore the subject. He was proud of all the praises the teachers had given to his son, but he knew it was a delicate issue.

“Good, good. At the end Carla came with me.”

“I am so sorry I could make it…”

Buck had promised Chris that he would go to the conference with Eddie because he needed to see his class and the plant he grew with his biology teacher. In the end, with a last minute change of shift, he had to cancel and Eddie knew that he was beating himself about it. They had talked a lot about what had happened that morning with the skateboard and all the mess that followed, but Buck had tried to stay away from the conference subject as much as possible. 

“Don’t worry, he’s told you, he’s not mad about it. You’ve heard, you can see the plant next time you go pick him up at school.”

Buck hummed, picking a little at the bottle’s label, clearly not wanting to meet Eddie’s eyes. 

“I just don’t like breaking promises to him.”

Moving a little closer, wiggling his way down the couch, Eddie just pushed his leg a little against Buck’s, just let him feel his presence. His heart ached every time Buck would show this delicate, vulnerable side and the thought that the mere idea of disappointing his son was so heartbreaking to him warmed him deeply. 

When he felt Buck’s thigh push back into his, accepting the little form of reassurance, he sighed and tried to push back those warm, fuzzy feelings he had in his stomach that always surfaced when thinking about Buck and Chris’ relationship. 

“The teachers were all so weird, though. They all made these absurd jokes about math and chemistry…”

“Really?” Buck turned his head a little, smiling a little more easily, clearly relieved of the change of subject even if still haunted by the disappointment. 

“Yeah! Like, the chemistry teacher seemed cool, no jokes and all talking about Chris, and when I told her I was glad she wasn’t joking around she said “I don’t make jokes if I am not expecting a reaction” or something like that.” 

Buck’s laughter filled the living room for a couple of seconds, shutting up immediately putting a large hand on his mouth. His blue eyes, still crinkling and amused, moved quickly toward Chris’ room like he could see through walls if the sound had woken up the child. They kept still for a few moments, waiting, and when it was clear Chris was still asleep he removed the hand, chuckling still from the awful joke. 

“You find that funny? Really?” he whispered, like if he had to make it up for the loud noise from before that came from his friend. 

“Yeah, c’mon... it’s a nice chemistry joke.”

He stopped giggling and rested his head on the back of the couch, turned to look intensely at him. 

“So, no Van Halen’s teachers on sight?”

His voice was amused but when Eddie looked at him he could notice that he was tense. He was still sprawled comfortably, but his hand was wrapped tight around the bottle. His mouth was turned into a small smile but his shoulders were hiding more and more of his neck. Like it would always happen when Buck tried to make himself small, or when he would hide that something was upsetting him behind a joke, Eddie felt the impending urge to just  _ get closer.  _ To hug him, hold him until every muscle in his body would relax, every crinkle on his forehead would be smoothen out. 

Eddie just shrugged, mirroring his pose on the couch, looking attentively at his best friend to try and catch any changes in his behavior. 

“Not even this English teacher you ripped a new one this morning?”

He didn’t really want to talk about that lady. He didn’t really talk about that lady  _ with Buck.  _ He didn’t want to talk about  _ ladies _ with Buck. 

“Carla said that she was really pretty and you got all flustered when you were talking to her.”

Once again, his tone of voice was teasing him but the almost haunted look in his eyes was saying something else. If he didn’t know him but like he knew he knew his best friend, he would have missed it. From the outside it would have looked just like two friends, talking about a possible new woman in Eddie’s life, just messing around, teasing each other. And Eddie could have just let it be that, could have ignored the clearly pained expression in Buck’s eyes, and the rock sitting at the bottom of his stomach. Could have ignored how the pink sweater hugged Buck in all the right places, how good felt the leg that was pressing against his, how the silence felt terse and charged with something neither of them wanted yet to express. 

Buck had told him, while drinking another beer, when they were waiting for Abuela to bring Chris back from his afternoon of snack and cuddles that she had pretended after she discovered that her little boy was hurt, that a couple of nights before he was almost certain that his sister was trying to set him up with Josh, her friend from work. They had a good night, they drank and played poker and ate the dinner Maddie had made for them. He had told him how quickly the conversation drifted to how hard it had been for both Buck and Josh to go back in the dating world. He hadn’t exactly told him with words but he read between the lines that what he was trying to say was that he felt lonely and that for a moment he actually considered the option. He didn’t say it but for a moment he  _ looked _ at Josh and considered him an option.  _ He’s a very nice guy,  _ he had said, and that made the blood boil in his veins. 

“She’s pretty.” He said, still watching carefully.  _ But she’s not you,  _ he wanted to say. “But I would never even consider letting someone enter my life that way if I didn’t know that Chris was their first priority.”

“Isn’t that a bit much to ask?”

Eddie felt himself smile that small smile that grew only when Buck was being a little bit dense. He thought back a couple of hours prior, when Buck showed him the article of a woman who built a skateboard rig for her child with cerebral palsy, talking too fast for him to really follow about how they could buy or build one like that for Christopher, about how happy that would make him. His brain was spinning, thinking of how they could bring him to the park and surprise him near the skatepark so he could play with the other kids. 

“No, it’s really not.”


End file.
